Friday, November 30, 2007

AAPP publisher of this blog says: I'm pissed! Everything has changed and nothing has changed in black and white communities across America. Black on Black violence is out of control, white media, like the black community consider black life, less important than white life. I must ask the same questions Gina at What about Our Daughters is asking, Why Aren't the Lives of Black Women Treasured? Like many black bloggers, including George Cook at the blog lets talk honestly and other black bloggers, excuse the language, but, - I'm tired of this shit y'all.

Have you been watching the news coverage? The fact of the matter is Latasha Normans disappearance was ignored due to her race Now a white Internet porn star Zoey Zane gets national media coverage over her death, yet the same black woman ignored by the media in her disappearance is ignored again after foul play,. Two people, dead, one black one white , one gets no national coverage. a black woman who was smart and hardworking. While Zoey Zane was leading a double life as a porn star and gets coverage on every national news broadcast. Yes, it's a sad commentary on our media.

USA Today has reported on the loss. I'm not sure if they covered it before her untimely death.The Washington Post has reported on her disappearance for a week, and reported on her death through a basic AP report. As I noted in a previous post, Why is it that when a white college student disappear the white media will go across the globe looking for her. When a black college student disappears. The white media shuts it down. Bridget Johnson at Pajama Media notes "For every Chandra Levy, Laci Peterson, Elizabeth Smart or Natalee Holloway, there are dozens more victims whose cases go ignored by the media." She goes on to ask" if some lives - those of the cute, white, female, wealthy and preferably blond - are worth more than others." More

"Dear Bitter, Scorned, Rejected Black men of America, What the hell is wrong with y'all?

First Tynesha Stewart, then Nailah Franklin, now Latasha Norman. I don't get it. You fools DO know that there are 10 women to 1 man in the world nowadays, right? There's no excuse for you to kill these bright and beautiful sisters of ours who deserved much more than to be a missing person case with a sad ending. Yes it hurts and sucks to be turned away by women with so much going on that may not want you anymore. That's life. You move on and say "f*** it, her loss" and find another woman. This "if I can't have you, no one else will" garbage is reprehensible and causing an already ridiculous divide between black men and black women to grow deeper and wider. You know they come out with studies every so often to try anddrive black women away from us. More HERE

This is a conversation that needs to be continued. are you a pissed off as i am? do you think there needs to be Black Accountability? What are you willing to do?

Tuesday, November 27, 2007

In today's update: Politics, Race and the Black vote, Internet Use and the $860 billionblack family, and bad news.

Most Democratic candidates are ignoring African AmericansChicago Sun-Times, United States - Yet the Democratic candidates -- with the exception of John Edwards, who opened his campaign in New Orleans' Ninth Ward and has made addressing poverty central to his campaign -- have virtually ignored the plight of African Americans in this country. The catastrophic crisis that engulfs the African-American community goes without mention. No urban agenda is given priority. When thousands of African Americans marched in protest in Jena, La., not one candidate showed up.Black Accountability Project says That's because no one is holding them accountable, including Jesse Jackson who endorsed Obama! Read More HERE

Boston Globe, United States - Hillary Clinton is overwhelmingly popular with black voters, drawing higher approval ratings than the only major African-American candidate running for president, according to a study released today by the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies.

Clinton's own record as First Lady and New York senator -- along with her marriage to former President Bill Clinton, who is very popular among black voters -- earned her an 83 percent approval rating among likely black voters, compared to 75 percent who ranked Illinois Senator Barack Obama positively, the study said.

It's not that black voters don't like Obama as much, said David Bositis, senior research director for the Washington-based group. But African-Americans -- especially those in the South -- haven't seen black candidates do well statewide, and are concerned Obama can't win, Bositis said.

Black Accountability Project says: What do you expect when black political and social bloggers have failed come together as a group to give black communities information that will provide them with opportunities to become more intelligent voters? Time is running short folks, the 2008 primaries are near. time to develop 50 Questions for all the presidential candidates to answer on issues of importance to black communities, and give the all a report card. OK afrospear it's time to come up with 50 of the most important and toughest questions for the Presidential candidates to answer.

African Americans Will Make Up 11.8% of All US Internet UsersBusiness Wire (press release)Following Hispanics, African Americans are the second-largest minority market in the US. Researchers estimate they will spend $860 billion in 2007, rising to $1.1 trillion by 2012. The factors driving this buying power, such as improvements in education, income and employment, are also increasing African American Internet usage.

The African Americans Online report analyzes the many factors that have gone into creating the digital divide, including why it is closing slower than expected.

eMarketer estimates that African Americans will make up 11.8% of all US Internet users in 2011, up from 10.8% in 2006.

But despite the fact that the costs of computer equipment and Internet access have fallen over the last few years, there continues to be a significant digital divide between White and Black America.

Key questions the African Americans Online report addresses:

-How many African Americans are online?-Is the digital divide closing?-What is distinctive about the attitudes and values of African Americans that drive their spending behavior?-What lessons can be learned from successful marketing targeting African Americans?And many others

Black Accountability Project says: Buying power? yes, In debt power ? yes, Building personal and family wealth? no. Political power? yes, using our political power? no, Time for individual accountability? Yes.

Last year the federal government's Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta issued a report showing that the steady increase in the HIV/AIDS infection rate for African Americans had actually declined. This was very good news! It suggested that at least in the area of slowing down the spread of a killer disease Blacks as a group were doing something right. Thus, as a journalist who stays pretty well abreast of what is taking place in the media, I was saddened and disappointed when this news received virtually no mention in the mainstream media and very little coverage even in Black media.

History teaches that if the news had been negative or the HIV/AIDS infection rate had increased significantly, it would have been given widespread coverage. The episode prompted the following question: Why is virtually all the news receiving massive coverage and specifically relating to African Americans usually negative? Read more Here

Monday, November 26, 2007

Well it looks like black leadership is missing in the SEC proxy discussion. According to William Michael Cunningham. You see Mr. Cunningham tracks these issues for a living. He is an expert in the field. He finds black leadership continue to be Missing in Action (MIA) on the important topics and issues that have major impact of our communities. Michael Cunningham writes in his blog:

"The leader of the Securities and Exchange Commission (Christopher Cox) told lawmakers yesterday that he is poised to move ahead with a controversial shareholders rights proposal, drawing sharp criticism from Democratic lawmakers and officials from unions and pension funds. In July, Cox voted to seek comment on two conflicting proposals. One would codify the way the SEC has typically done business in a manner that allows companies to exclude investor proposals from proxies sent to a company's shareholders. The second, broader plan would have allowed investors that hold at least 5 percent of a company's stock greater leeway in proposing board candidates in exchange for more disclosure about their operations."

According to another source, the "SEC chief cites legal ‘confusion’ as reason to curtail shareholders’ ability to nominate directors, but says he’ll revisit the issue in spring."

Shareholder proposals have helped to increase the number of women and minorities serving on corporate boards. They have also helped encourage diversity initiatives at these same corporations.

To ignore the risk these SEC proposals pose to efforts to better manage corporations is to ignore demographic trends.

We invited Andrew Carr, head of the Operation PUSH sponsored Wall Street Project to a meeting we had on 11/24/07 with staff in the SEC Chairman's Office to discuss the matter. We never received a reply. Of course, we went without him, (or the Urban League or the NAACP, for that matter). Read MORE HERE

Tuesday, November 20, 2007

For many blacks in America the NAACP, especially the national organization, has lost touch with the very people it is charged to serve. Check out this post from Afrospear member and black blogger, Shawn Williams of the widely and highly recognized Dallas South Blog. It makes some interesting points about the realities of race in America, and how the NAACP, like many other organizations and individuals have changed very little in how it addresses the issues of the day.

Obsolescence - the state of being which occurs when a person, object, or service is no longer wanted even though it may still be in good working order.

I was president of the Texas A&M Chapter of the NAACP from 1994-1996 and I count Dallas President Casey Thomas as a friend. The organization is quite dear to me.

With all that said, I see the NAACP, especially the national organization, as losing touch with the very people it is charged to serve. As the realities of race in America has evolved, the NAACP has changed very little in how it addresses the issues of the day.

If the NAACP is not leading (I said leading) the effort in cases like the Jena 6, Genarlow Wilson, and Tyrone Brown that what are they doing? The group is really trying to find its way right now, that's evident in the change in leadership that occurred earlier this year.

It was a surprise to say the least when the NAACP broke with conventional wisdom and hired executive Bruce Gordon to lead the organization. Only 19 months into the job, Gordon resigned his post as president (last March).

Gordon's vision as president did not lineup with the NAACP's 64 member board . The former Verizon exec realized the NAACP was a civil rights group, but thought they could benefit from broadening their scope. He wanted to address more of Black America's pressing needs.

Julian Bond, chairman of the board said at the time, "Put simply, we fight racial discrimination and social service groups fight the effects of racial discrimination. Service is wonderful and praiseworthy and fabulous, but many, many organizations do it. Only a couple do justice work, and we're one of those few." More HERE

Black accountability projects are beginning to created across America even though the start up date was announced for December 1, 2007.

One example is the Blog Black Accountability Project affiliate: Black Accountability Project - Indy which is one of the first of many Black Accountability "WatchBlogs" that will serve to hold local black leadership, opinion makers, public officials and non-profit institutions accountable.

Here's one from the "Taste of His Own Medicine" department: When the Rev. Al Sharpton led a recent Washington rally to protest what he called lax federal prosecution of hate crimes, at least one local black resident was waiting with a protest of his own.

Amid recent reports of noose hangings and other racial incidents, Sharpton, Martin Luther King III and other activists rallied outside the Department of Justice Friday to call for tougher federal prosecutions of hate crimes.

Shane Johnson, 32, a social worker by day and Weblogger on the side, staged a nearby dissent with a few sympathizers. He supported the prosecution of hate crimes, he said, but thinks Sharpton's definition of "hate" is too narrow. Johnson didn't draw much attention and he wasn't surprised. "Most people view me as taking on the black establishment," he told me in a telephone interview. "They think I am going to embarrass our leaders. My view is that they should be embarrassed."

Maybe they should. I share Johnson's outrage. Why, I often have wondered, do we black folks get so much more agitated about white-on-black insults than the black-on-black assaults that constantly terrorize certain neighborhoods?

Johnson is part of a new "netroots" movement of black-oriented Web sites that has created a virtual civil rights movement. More HERE

Wednesday, November 14, 2007

So what is new? Did we really need another study from Pew Research Centerto tell us that Black folk have grown more pessimistic about America? So now we know that Black Americans are more dissatisfied with our progress than at any time in the past 20 years.

It's official, What next?

Are these three guys going to lead black folks to Martin Luther King's dream? OK, how about just the American dream? More here about the Study.

OK, so studies can be important. So check this out. This particular study also notes, "Nearly half of African Americans born to middle-income parents in the late 1960s plunged into poverty or near-poverty as adults, according to a new study -- a perplexing finding that analysts say highlights the fragile nature of middle-class life for many African Americans." yesterday? The fact of the matter is black folks are not doing very well in America these days. This particular study said:

Overall, family incomes have risen for both blacks and whites over the past three decades. But in a society where the privileges of class and income most often perpetuate themselves from generation to generation, black Americans have had more difficulty than whites in transmitting those benefits to their children. OK, and as if we don't have enough to burden ourselves with . Here comes another coconut head who wonders if middle class blacks are a different race.

So, Black folk, who should be held accountable for this? Drugs and violence, Teen Pregnancy, Poor Schools, Urban decay, The Reagan Revolution? Bush Tax Cuts, Social Service agencies, Black and White folks running social service programs who just don't get it? Viacom? The economy, racism, sexism, Bush's War, Welfare Reform? Black middle class moving out of urban areas, leaving the poor to fetch for themselves? Lack of engagement by black preachers in core city issues, lack of mentors? media? The Lack of Black Responsibility? BET? Or just plain lack of Black accountability across the board?

The Black Agenda Report takes it to the next level with an accurate analysis of syndicated hustler Michael Baisden. Check out the powerful article (below) on the place Black America finds itself in regarding Black Talk Radio. Do you have some thoughts on what needs to be done? Share your thoughts in the comments section or go directly to the Black Agenda Report website. Let them know what you think and what your willing to do, as we hold ourselves and others accountable.

Syndicated hustler Michael Baisden, eager to become kingpin of Jena Six fundraising, launched a slanderous campaign against every Black that didn't have access to ABC radio's corporate reach. Baisden's principal target: Color of Change, the mass-based Internet organization that raised and distributed over $200,000 for Jena defendants' legal fees in record time. Baisden used his 50-station network to defame Color of Change, in "reckless disregard of the truth," and was soon forced to issue a fraction of an apology. But Baisden's crimes only serve to dramatize the fact that near-extinction of Black radio news - the mechanism that could have stopped the junkyard dog in his filthy tracks - has left African Americans at the mercy of "media leadership." We must reclaim the commercial airwaves that reach 80-90 percent of Blacks.

Here is a great article By Leonard Pitts of the Miami Hearld. I guess he like many Black Americans are questioning Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson and a number of old guard "leaders" who don't know how to let go. Check out the article. Let us know what you think.

No one person can speak for all American blacks

Beg pardon, but who died and made Al Sharpton president of the Negroes?

Not that Sharpton has ever declared himself as such. But the fact that some regard him as black America's chief executive was driven home for the umpteenth time a few days ago after TV reality show bounty hunter Duane ''Dog'' Chapman got in trouble for using a certain toxic racial epithet -- six letters, starts with N, rhymes with digger -- on the phone with his son.

As you may have heard, Chapman was expressing disapproval of the son's African-American girlfriend. ''It's not because she's black,'' he said. 'It's because we use the word `n----' sometimes here. I'm not going to take a chance ever in life of losing everything I've worked for for 30 years because some f---- n---- heard us say 'n----' and turned us in to the Enquirer magazine.''

Naturally, the son sold a tape of the conversation to the National Enquirer. Which leaves me in the awkward position of simultaneously loathing what Chapman said and pitying him for having raised a rat fink son who would sell out his own father for a few pieces of silver. Anyway, with his life and career circling the drain, an apologetic Chapman fell back on what is becoming standard operating procedure for celebrities who defame black folk. He contacted Sharpton.

In so doing, he follows the trail blazed by Don Imus, Washington shock jock Doug ''Greaseman'' Tracht, and Michael Richards, who sought out Sharpton (or, alternately, Jesse Jackson) atter saying what they wished they had not. They were all in turn following the news media which, whenever a quote on some racial matter is required, turn to the right reverends by reflex. You'd think they knew no other Negroes.

I don't begrudge Jackson or Sharpton their fame. Jena, La., might have gone unnoticed had they not used that fame to direct public attention there. Still, I question whether we ought not by now have grown beyond the notion that one or two men can speak for, or offer absolution in the name of, 36 million people.

I had an amazing experience last night on the Black Women's Roundtable podcast sponsored by Gina at What About Our Daughters - Defunding the War on Black Women and Attorneymom at Character Corner. We discussed many different subjects but perhaps the most important agenda item for me was to talk about counter demonstrating the Washington D.C. March on Hate Crimes. For many of you who still are unaware, a horrific gang rape and torture style attack were carried out on a Black mother and a pre-teen son by a group of 10 teenage boys, now known as the Dunbar Village Tragedy. Gina McCauley at WAOD and Symphony of Essential Presence have been covering this story rather tenaciously. Collectively, they have been asking for the past 4 months, "Why are Black "Leaders" SILENT about Dunbar Village"? Please read about this vile and disgusting attack, as well as all updates regarding Dunbar Village here.

In an effort to bring more light to this story and to confront black "leaders" about their peculiar silence regarding this case, particularly Al Sharpton, it became clear to me that we can organize a counter protest to the Hate Crimes March in DC on November 16, 2007 from 12 noon - 2:00pm at the Department of Justice. If Sharpton, King III, and to others can take to the streets to chide the Federal Government for inaction on investigating and actively prosecuting hate crimes, surely we can criticize the good Reverend and his colleagues, for the very same thing. As Gina would put it, "Let's call people out for the Immoral Indifference".

Let me be clear, this is NOT an attempt to get Mr. Sharpton (OR HIS ILK) to advocate for Dunbar Village and others; clearly we have taken on the onus of advocating for them. I merely want ACKNOWLEDGEMENT from Mr. Shaprton (whose presence alone commands national media attention... good or bad) that this kind of sadistic, calculated, weaponized, form of rape and torture will not be tolerated! To quote the esteemed writer/scholar/activist/feminist Audre Lorde, "[our] silence will not protect [us]." I am tired, angry, and ready to accept this moral call-to-arms, if you will, to place the same premium on black womanhood as society places on white womanhood. Will you join me and others as we organize ourselves to challenge the collective conscience of the black community and America as a whole? Put your outrage, disgust, and disappointment to action! If you can be there, JOIN ME!!! More HERE

A restless crowd quickly gathered and grew to as many as 150, as some neighbors shouted protests against police brutality. “You need training — this is absurd!” one woman shouted out a window to the police. Another man pressed against a yellow crime-scene tape and said: “I’m not trying to start a riot. I’m just saying it’s not right.”

Robert Stolarik for The New York Times

Investigators at the scene of a shooting Monday evening in Bedford-Stuyvesant. Khiel Coppin, 18, was killed by officers who believed he was armed.

A young man was fatally shot last night in a hail of 20 bullets fired by five police officers who responded to his mother’s 911 call for help in a domestic dispute in Brooklyn, the authorities said.

The police said they believed that the man, Khiel Coppin, 18, had a gun. But when the gunfire stopped, it turned out that he had been holding a hairbrush.

Officers went into the building at 590 Gates Avenue, in Bedford-Stuyvesant, about 7 p.m. The police said they were responding to a 911 call from the mother reporting domestic abuse and asking for help to “deal with this,” and that on the call a man was overheard threatening to kill her and claiming “I have a gun.”

One resident of the building, Andre Sanchez, 17, said that after the police arrived, he saw from the hallway through the open door of the apartment that the officers inside were talking to Mr. Coppin, who was in a bedroom and opening and closing that door as they spoke.

Mr. Coppin then climbed out a first-floor window and confronted more officers outside the building, and multiple shots were fired at him, bystanders said. Wounded, Mr. Coppin fell to the ground and was handcuffed, witnesses said. He was taken to Woodhull Medical and Mental Health Center, where he was pronounced dead, the police said.

It was unclear how many of the 20 shots hit Mr. Coppin, a law enforcement source said. More HERE and HERE

Michael Baisden, who as bold as a hot pink dress at a funeral, savaged Color of Change, a venerable Black online advocacy organization tried to slide an “apology” to Color of Change under the door as he slunk away for the weekend hoping no one would notice . Now some would consider his cowardly and half-hearted apology an olive branch. Well fine, its an olive branch-- an olive branch the Black blogosphere needs to snatch from Baisden's hand and beat him about the head with.

I'm a blogger. I may blog primarily about issues affecting African American women and girls, but I am a blogger first. There would be no What About Our Daughters? If there wasn't a Black blogosphere.That is why I will often weigh in on things that don't directly pertain to moi. For example, when folks started telling Sandra Rose that they were leaving her blog because of her thoughts, I cried “FOOLISHNESS.” When some idiot male bloggers ( y'all know who they are) repeatedly launched vicious attacks and attempted to intimidate and harass Black women bloggers who blog about interracial dating and marriage, I cried “FOOLISHNESS!” When someone came to me asking me to proclaim “I love Black men” at the beginning of my podcast because some wackjob and psycho Black male blogger was going around saying that I hated Black men, I cried FOOLISHNESS! FOOLISHNESS! FOOLISHNESS!

Although I have a pretty good sized megaphone in the form of videos, a podcast and this blog, I have only directed my wrath at another Black blogger ONCE and that was in self defense after a long campaign launched against me in coordination with Viacom employees and even then, I didn't mention the guilty party by name. Why don't I attack and mock other bloggers for what they think? Well first, because they have a right to say whatever in the heck they want to, but second, because I realize that whatever this thing is that is exploding right now, it could change the course of human history so I avoid trying to take out another blogger even one out to destroy my own blog. More HERE

The Jena 6 story was initially broken by KAYT 88.1 FM Radio Talk Show Host Tony Brown. For approximately one year prior to the Jena 6 story reaching national attention, Mr. Brown was in the trenches working to bring public attention and justice to the Jena 6 defendants.

Also in the trenches with Tony Brown and the Jena 6 families, was Pastor Brian Moran, who is the young preacher from Jena, Louisiana, who, allowed the Jena 6 families to meet at the church he ministers, after they were turned away by other local black ministers.

Both men worked tirelessly with the local chapter of the NAACP to address the injustice that was generated by unequal treatment of the Jena 6 teens by local parish Prosecutor.

Click here to hear an interview with Tony Brown and Pastor Brian Moran. This eye-opening interview was given on September 11th on Victory Waters Speak on blogradio.com. In the interview you can hear Mr. Brown's concerns (albeit subtle) about radio talk show personalities being involved in the Jena 6 fight. More HERE

At the age of 71, I am a member of the progressive sector of African-American intellectuals, the post-World War II civil rights generation. The civil rights organizations I identified with were the NAACP, the National Council of Negro Women, the Congress of Racial Equality, the A. Philip Randolph Institute, the National Urban League, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, and the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee, among others. The leadership personalities I looked up to and revered were W.E.B. Du Bois, James Weldon Johnson, Walter White, Roy Wilkins, Whitney Young, Mary McLeod Bethune, Dorothy Height, James Farmer, Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks, Jesse Jackson, Julian Bond, John Lewis, Medgar Evers, and Fannie Lou Hamer, to mention only a few.

However, just recently several articles have appeared by members of the post-civil rights era generation of Black academics that amount to tossing poisoned darts at African Americans’ mainline civil rights tradition and its courageous leadership figures. One of these civil rights tradition-offending articles, penned by Michael Eric Dyson, a professor of Afro-American Studies at the University of Pennsylvania, appeared in the New York Times, September 27, 2002. In the op ed piece, Dyson claims he belongs to a new generation of Black intellectuals who consider leadership personalities like Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks fair game for anyone’s comedic dishonoring. He defended such dishonoring of King and Parks in the Black people-offending MGM film, “Barbershop.”

Supporting the mindless hip-hop style irreverence toward African-American civil rights leadership, Prof. Dyson considers it some kind of new freedom for Black actors and entertainers to verbally dishonor Dr. King, Rosa Parks, and others. Dyson approaches the analytically bizarre in his article when he claims “that the barbershop…may be one of the last bastions of unregulated speech in black America.” He also claims that, “at the worst [civil rights organizations] are antidemocratic institutions headed by gifted but authoritarian leaders.”

These observations are not just bizarre, but outright falsehoods. They are analytically wrong and serve as anti-Black ammunition for conservative opponents of African-Americans’ civil rights agenda. The fact of the matter is that millions of everyday African-American citizens are fully aware of the unique, populist give-and-take interaction between leaders and followers that is typically experienced in branches of the National Council of Negro Women, the NAACP, the National Urban League, the National Bar Association, the African Methodist Episcopal Church convention, Black women’s sororities, etc. Extending forward from the Emancipation era in the late 19th century, the nooks and crannies of African-American life have been saturated with open speech, far more so than among other American groups. Open speech is precisely what, for example, Negro spirituals, gospel music, the “dozens,” dinner table-talk, street talk, meetings of all kinds of African-American organizations, have been about. Michael Dyson, an ordained Black clergyman, might do himself well to revisit the folk essence of African-American institutions, before he again contemplates an affront to Black people’s honor.

But Dyson’s article was a relatively mild version of the new Black leadership pretense among hip-hop spokespersons, when compared with another op ed article in the Boston Globe (October 2, 2002) titled “There’s No Bridging The Hip-Hop Gap,” by Todd Boyd, a professor of cinema/TV. Boyd’s grotesque slanders erupt like weeds from a thicket of historical ignorance, as he attempts to elevate hip-hop spokespersons to premier leadership status among African-Americans. Let me explain. MORE Here

The Jena 6 case - in which Southern white law enforcement in Jena, La., unabashedly doled out biased treatment against six African-American high school students - harkens backs to this country’s era of Jim Crow. And it is a no-brainer as to why there was a mass protest.

What boggles my mind, however, is the protest from many in our queer community toward the LGBTQ individuals and organizations that showed up in solidarity.

For example, Chris Crain, the former editor of the Washington Blade and the man behind the popular blog and syndicated column “Citizen Crain,” balked at HRC’s president, Joe Solmonese, for appearing at the rally.

“Why pick this case? It doesn’t involve discrimination of the type suffered historically by gay Americans. I would agree completely that there is racial discrimination in this country, and that the criminal justice system suffers from prosecutorial abuse, biased jury verdicts and lopsided sentences based on race,” Crain wrote. “But … why pick the Jena 6, … a case of six bullies who beat, kicked and stomped a defenseless teen unconscious in a schoolyard, as the one for the GLBT movement to take a stand?”

When your identity, like mine, is the intersection of these two marginalized groups, the question is moot. Crain’s question is similar to the mindset of Alveda King, the niece of Martin Luther King, who said gays never had to sit in the back of the bus.

Alexander Robinson of the National Black Justice Coalition (NBJC), the only national African-American LGBTQ organization in the country, showed his solidarity in a statement: “Earlier this summer, NBJC joined the NAACP in its effort to right the wrongs against the Jena 6. We cannot allow the injustice in Jena, La., or anywhere else in the country to go unnoticed or unchallenged and we need your support to do it!!”Crain’s question, however, cannot be summarily dismissed, because it is an important one. But his question should be hurled at the Goliaths leading the Jena 6 protest and not at the Davids who followed African-American leadership.

For a different reason than Crain’s, I too, ask a question: “Why a rally in support of these six black boys but not the seven black lesbians who defended themselves against an anti-gay attack and were charged with beating and stabbing a white filmmaker? The filmmaker instigated the violence by threatening them and actually trying to choke one of them in the Greenwich Village in August 2006?” More HERE

The Black Leadership Forum wrote the Federal Communications Commission arguing that a variety of proposals from FCC Chairman Kevin Martin would "damage" the business models of minority programmers. One of those is a digital-TV spectrum-leasing arrangement the chairman circulated for a vote recently. In the letter, the group took aim at cable a la carte, which they said would be "inimical" to minority programmers; at mandatory cable carriage of a broadcasters' multicast channels, which it called puzzling and unjustified; and at a proposal to lease DTV spectrum to designated entries including women and minorities, which it called a "consolation prize for all of the other FCC efforts to undermine minority programmers" that relegates them to second-class status.

A majority of urban cities across America are becoming or have become gentrified, as black youth kill each-other in the streets of America. Black senior citizens are scared to come out to even take a walk in many urban communities.

Our communities are dividing as new and old segregated class divisions expand across the American landscape. No one is being held accountable for the pathological political culture of black elected officials caring more about themselves than the people that elected them. The culture of gangster rap, incarceration, drug dependency, teen sex and violence taking control of many black communities. A culture were Black women are dying of AIDS in record numbers, while cancers, hypertension, and other diseases kill us at alarming rates. Agencies outside our communities receive the lion share of health prevention, education and treatment dollars. The reality is, black institutions, black political leaders, such as the Congressional Black Caucus, sports and radio personalities, black preachers, social services organizations, Federal, state, and local governments, the Democrats and the Republicans are generally failing black communities.

National groups like the NAACP and Urban League and dozens of national black organizations are supported by wealthy white corporate donors who urge these organizations to stay clear of grassroots organizing and real economic political development - This must stop.

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